


you'll be the death of me

by bartallen



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Character Death, Guilt, M/M, Mariticide, Mental Health Issues, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Stabbing, Murder, Psychological Horror, Unhealthy Relationships, Unreliable Narrator, but no descriptions of the actual murder, but this sounds more violent than it actually is tbh, they're not having a Good Time !, uhhh mentions of funerals prisons and idk just murdery things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27133247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bartallen/pseuds/bartallen
Summary: Jaehyun gets a phone call he's not supposed to get.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Comments: 40
Kudos: 94
Collections: Challenge #2 — tricks; treats; and terrors





	you'll be the death of me

It’s 8pm when his phone rings, and Jaehyun’s just finished making tea.

He puts the tea away, some kind of orange ginger mixture he’s gotten used to buying in college, and grabs his cup to move to the living room. Only when he’s put the cup on the table in front of the couch, he actually checks his display. 

_Anonymous calling…_

He frowns. For the past few days, he’s been plagued by anonymous calls. Most of them occur at night, so he’s only met with missed call notifications in the mornings; but sometimes, like right now, he’ll be staring at a stranger calling him. All this time he assumed it was scam calls, but in all his 25 years on this planet, he hasn’t met scam callers this persistent.

Sighing, he swipes right and answers the call.

“Hello?”

“Jaehyunnie?”

The voice is slightly distorted and muffled by the phone, but its undoubtedly him. A shiver runs down his spine, and he throws his phone away from him.  


He’s frozen on the couch, until he hears a tinny voice, coming from his smartphone lying on the floor a few meters away. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts, and then scrambles towards to where it’s lying. The timer is still running at 00:48 and counting, signalling an ongoing call, but Jaehyun quickly presses the red circle, and the call disconnects. 

A prank. That’s all it is. A sick prank, sure, but a prank nonetheless. 

He sits there for a few seconds longer, before quietly getting up and laughing at his own panicky state. How easily he’s been shaken by a harmless prank is ridiculous. He sits down again and takes a sip from his tea. It tastes more bitter than usual and he makes a face. His hands feel itchy. 

His phone rings again, and he ignores it.

He takes another sip, this one not any sweeter than before. 

_Sugar, I need sugar._

_Oranges are already sweet_ , his voice scolds him.

His phone rings for a third time.

He answers it.

“Why haven’t you been answering my calls?” The voice sounds whiny, and Jaehyun can imagine him pouting on the other side of the phone.

“I’m sorry,” He rasps. 

“Hm,” Doyoung says. “Are you?”

Jaehyun doesn’t answer. His hands are shaking so much he has trouble holding onto his phone. He’s shivering all over, and yet his palms are sweaty. It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.

“Jaehyunnie?”

“Stop saying my name,” He pleads. 

“How have you been?”

“Stop,” He begs again, this time more desperate. His voice sounds pathetic even to his own ears.

“Stop what?”

“You can’t be calling me, you can’t be talking to me,” He whimpers.

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

“Tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“You can, Jaehyun,” Doyoung’s voice is firm and leaves no room for refusal. “Tell me why I can’t be calling you.”

Jaehyun can feel his eyes well up with tears, and his voice is nothing but a whisper when he answers.

“Because I killed you.”

  


  
(Hocho ≊ Kitchen Knife)   
  
  
  
  


Jaehyun meets Doyoung at college orientation, and they hit it off immediately. They’re both passionate, driven and want to achieve great things at life. It doesn’t take long for them to become friends, and even less to start dating.

His life is great, college is great, Doyoung is great. 

They date for a year, and then two, until they’ve been dating for three years. They still love each other, they’re still friends, they’re still passionate. But something’s different. Doyoung can tell. Jaehyun can’t.

They’re close to graduation, can almost taste the freedom, so they’re both busy. Logically, Jaehyun knows Doyoung still loves him. Can feel it in the way he looks at him, the way he smiles at him, the way he holds him. But Jaehyun’s also an incredibly angry person. Always has been. Doyoung knows this. He has seen him angry. So far the anger has never been directed at Doyoung, though.

Jaehyun thinks Doyoung should know _better._

They’re fighting a lot. About anything and everything.

When Jaehyun doesn’t clean their kitchen, Doyoung yells at him. When Doyoung yells at him, Jaehyun yells back. Doyoung yells at him for yelling back. It’s an endless circle they can’t seem to get out of. 

But it’s fine, they think. They’re in love.

Doyoung stays out too late more often than not. _Studying_ , he says. Jaehyun doesn’t get it. He’s graduating too, isn’t he? He’s also studying and he’s fine at home. Doyoung has no reason to stay outside to study when there’s a perfectly fine table in their flat. 

“I just can’t concentrate at home,” Doyoung rolls his eyes. “I’ll be back later.”

Jaehyun’s kind of tired of the excuses. The pencil snaps in half from how tight he’s been gripping it.

But it’s fine. He’s in love.

Doyoung gets back later and later.

Jaehyun yells more and more.

“Do you even want to be in my presence?”

Doyoung doesn’t even turn around from where he’s washing his plate in the sink.

“What?” He chuckles, as if what Jaehyun said is _utterly ridiculous._ “Of course.”

“And yet you’re leaving _again._ ”

“I was here for dinner, wasn’t I?”

“Wow,” Jaehyun laughs, a sound so ugly that it makes Doyoung turn around. “I should be thanking you for being at home with your boyfriend?”

“You’re being ridiculous, as always,” Doyoung huffs. “I’m just gonna go study with Taeyong. _Our friend._ ” He gives him a stern look as he dries his hands on a towel. 

“You can study here!”

“I can’t focus here.” 

_Here._ He says it so derogatory, as if it’s not their home he’s talking about. Their home they’re supposed to be happy in. And yet Doyoung would rather go out and sit in dirty libraries with _Taeyong._

Doyoung puts his pencil case into his backpack and zips it shut, not even sparing Jaehyun another look as he puts on his jacket. “I’ll be back later.”

 _Later._ There it is again. _Later. Later. Later._ Always later. Never now.

Jaehyun sees red.

  


  
(Hocho ≊ Kitchen Knife)   
  
  
  
  


“You stabbed me,” Doyoung states. “Right in my back.”

Jaehyun whimpers, and he almost drops the phone again. His hands won’t stop shaking and he shrinks into himself. 

“Not once, not twice,” His voice sounds more sad now. “How many times, Jaehyun?”

The lump in his throat gets bigger and bigger, until he can’t control himself anymore. He starts sobbing, tears streaming down his face. 

“How many times?”

“Seven times,” He chokes out, for once in his life honest about that night.

His head is throbbing, and all he can hear is his own breathing and Doyoung’s voice in his ear.

“And what did you do then?”

Jaehyun doesn’t answer. He squeezes his eyes shut in an attempt to cancel the noise in his head: the ringing in his ears and Doyoung’s gentle voice.

“You took my phone, and texted Taeyong that I was on my way.”

“No…”

“You did. And then you carried me into your car and dropped me off in the woods like a rag doll.” 

“No!”

“You cleaned the apartment for hours, until there was no drop of blood left.”

Jaehyun chokes, because he remembers. He can still feel the bleach on his hands, the way the smell hadn’t left his nose for weeks.

“And then you went to Sicheng’s, and spent the night gaming with him. Like nothing happened.”

Sweat is dripping down his back, one drop at a time. He’s shivering.

“You went on with your life like nothing happened. You graduated, got a job,” Doyoung’s voice is conversational. “When they found my body, you even went to my funeral.”

Doyoung pauses, as if considering something.

“Hey Jaehyun,” He says. “How’s my brother doing?”

Jaehyun closes his eyes in defeat, and takes a rattling breath. While everyone had consoled him at the funeral, Donghyuck had marched up to him and slapped him across the face. He can still feel the stinging on his cheek. Another tear rolls down his cheek.

The comfort of the sofa suddenly feels too overwhelming. He gets up in a haste, accidentally knocking over the _stupid_ Orange Ginger tea.

“I’m done talking about this,” He says and hangs up the phone with shaky hands. He drops the phone on the ground yet again and makes his way into the bathroom.

Turning the sink on, he splashes water onto his face, before rubbing his eyes. What a crazy night. He rises, and takes a look at himself in the mirror. 

His face is red, eyes swollen and a haunted look in them. Even to himself he looks crazy. 

“That’s because you _are_ ,” He says, before shaking his head again. 

Outside, his phone starts ringing again.

 _Get it together,_ He scolds himself. 

“Calm down,” He whispers. “You’re fine. It’s been years. You’re here.”

Even to him it sounds weak. Choking on yet another sob, he slaps his hand on his mouth, unwilling to let it out.

A knock on the bathroom door startles him. The temperature in the room is freezing all of a sudden. He can feel his eyes tearing up again, fear wrapping around him like a cloak. His hands are still shaking when he splashes yet another load of water into his face. 

_No, no, no._

“Jaehyun?”

It’s all he needs to hear for his knees to buckle under him. He falls down onto the bathroom tiles so hard his knees ache in pain. 

There’s another knock. “Why won’t you answer your phone?”

Jaehyun wants to scream but he can’t make a single sound, paralysed in fear. His heart is hammering in his chest, adrenaline pumping through his veins in a terrifyingly fast way.

The third knock snaps him out of it.

_“Leave me alone!”_

He starts wailing again, wrapping his arms around his body and burying his face in his knees.

The door opens, and Jaehyun screams in terror.

Heavy footsteps are coming his way, until they stop right in front of him.

“Again, dude?”

There’s a hand on his arm, pulling it away from his face. Jaehyun screams and struggles against it, but the other person is much stronger than him.

“Stop it,” The other person growls. “It’s just me.”

The tight grip on his arm is calming, somehow. He blinks away tears, still panting.

Johnny is kneeling in front of him in all his blue-clad glory: a tired, but concerned expression on his face.

“Okay?”

Jaehyun stares at him. 

“I killed him,” He rasps. “I killed my boyfriend."

Johnny pats his head. “I know, buddy.”

Jaehyun is still breathing heavily, but there are no more tears streaming down his face.

Johnny strokes his hair one more time, before pulling him up.

“Come on,” He says, putting an arm over his shoulder. “Let’s get back to our cell.”

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/dearnoya) / [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/dearestdream)


End file.
